Can we make sense of SA’s mixed messages?

Geoff Sifrin

Taking Issue

There are so many mixed messages about the society, government and economy. Do they herald the beginning of a new creative thrust of our “revolution”, or a one-way downward slide to becoming another failed African state?

Looked at through South African Jewry’s prism, the confusion is exemplified by contradictory attitudes to Israel. On one hand, we have the Speaker of Parliament, Baleka Mbete, telling an Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) event in Stellenbosch last week: “The Israeli regime, just like the apartheid regime before it, is obstinate and uncompromising.”

In the light of that, what should we make of the government last Thursday in the middle of IAW holding the highest level exchange between Israel and South Africa in a decade, in what seemed like a slight to BDS?

The meeting last week between the Director General of the Department of International Relations and Co-operation Jerry Matjila and his Israeli counterpart, Dore Gold, exploring co-operation on water, agriculture, trade and technology, was described by people who were there as “upbeat”.

Adding to the confusion are statements by well-known Jewish commentators who support BDS’ goals and want it to succeed. Such as last week’s op-ed in the Daily Vox by Professor Steven Friedman, director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg, slamming BDS-South Africa for failing to turn solidarity with Palestine into a mainstream movement in South Africa.

“This failure… is particularly astounding when we consider that the vast majority of black South Africans are sympathetic to the cause – if the realities of Palestinian life are explained to them.”

Or heroes of the anti-apartheid Struggle like Denis Goldberg – who was jailed for 22 years after being sentenced for anti-apartheid activism in 1964 in the Rivonia Trial – who said last year at a panel of Struggle activists examining its possible lessons for Palestine: “There is no doubt in my mind that Israel is an apartheid state.”

Apartheid, he said, is where a government enforces laws and policies that discriminate between people on the basis of race or religion. He added that in his view this applies to Israel proper as well as the West bank and Gaza.

Yet the strong support for Israel from African Christian groups tells another story, epitomised by a comment by ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe printed on a poster hung at Wits University by Jewish students: “The very idea that Israel is an apartheid state cheapens the word apartheid – it is an insult to every South African who endured the inhumanity and pain of it.”

Jews worry about growing hostility to Israel, particularly in Europe. But Dore Gold countered the perception of Israeli isolation when addressing Jews at Sandton shul: “There is actually an unprecedented rise in our foreign relations. Our Asian connections particularly are booming – with Japan, China and India”, which constitute billions of people.

South Africa is an angry society today, trying to understand itself. The governing ANC is confused. It is hard to know who really talks for it or the government, as the country teeters on the brink of economic disaster and social rebellion.

This is the sort of time when great leaders must arise to bring clarity, as Mandela did two decades ago. Sadly, such leaders are scarce today, not just in the country, but also among South African Jewry.

Read Geoff Sifrin’s regular columns on his blog sifrintakingissue.wordpress.com